The h2cR sRNA affects the levels of the Hfq2 protein and the hfq2 mRNA in B. cenocepacia cells infecting C. elegans.

Levels of the Hfq2 protein and of h2cR transcript and hfq2 mRNA in B. cenocepacia cells harvest from nematodes after the indicated post-infection time. Hfq2 protein levels were quantified by Western blot (WB), while h2cR and hfq2 mRNA levels were quantified by Northern blot analysis (NB). The relative intensity of bands (RI) was estimated considering as unitary the intensity of the bands for cells of the CJ6, CJ7 or CJ8 strains grown for 2 h, and using as reference the intensity of the 5S rRNA bands. Western blot analysis was performed using 1 µg of total protein per lane, estimated in a Nanodrop ND1000 spectrophotometer. Results shown are representative of at least 4 independent experiments. Error bars are the means standard deviation.